GRChats - Character Creation, does it sway your gaming purchases?

Pedz wrote:
Jenuall wrote:Feel like I'm the opposite of lots of the opinions in here. I don't really care about customisation from an aesthetic perspective - for example I wasn't fussed when Outer World's rarely let me see my character. For me I care about it more from a gameplay perspective - do people react differently based on my characters appearance? Do certain attributes affect my options and abilities? Can changing my appearance through cosmetics or clothing alter my playthrough in a meaningful way?

Apart from race in certain games the answer to all those questions are no.

There are plenty of games where character builds are game-affecting, with choices of stats and perks, or more abstracted background questions that then go on to affect stats.

If we're talking purely physical appearance, fantasy races are one example and probably the most common, but sex is another big one - like Mount and Blade being harder if you play as a woman. In Dragon's Dogma a character's weight is important as it affects encumbrance and stamina - even in some games where you wouldn't expect it physical size can affect hitboxes. With clothing, Fallout New Vegas lets you disguise yourself within factions by wearing their armour - but I wouldn't count it under character creation as it's more in-game equipment.

Roleplaying is normally more concerned with the character stats, background and perks rather than pure physical appearance though.

Tbh, I didn't read all of Jenualls post :lol:

I was speaking from a appearance more than anything and even the few you mentioned it's still about 0.000001% of games where appearance actually effects anything.

Stats are different, obviously.

I'm generally surprised when people make it through the opening sentence of any of my posts so I'll let you off.

Most of my post was more about the sort of things I want games to do with respect to acknowledging character customisation rather than what currently happens - although as noted some games are starting to explore this more!

Where RPGs are concerned if I can create a character then I generally feel more engaged in the game, certainly more so than having an already predefined character (although being able to make cosmetic changes to a predefined character, such as Shepard in ME, is also a plus for me). If choices made during creation have a genuine effect on gameplay (as with the excellent Mount and Blade mentioned above), then even better.

I love spending time designing my character before I start the main game. I always spend a good thirty minutes trying to get the avatar to look like me before I go online in the Pro Evo Soccer games :lol:

. I hope that the upcoming Animal Crossing game includes "bald" and "beard" options :toot:

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Beyond cosmetic stuff, setting stats and things can be tricky as I agonise over what should be selected and why. In Dark Souls I had no idea what the various options enabled and it was only through subsequently chatting to people on stream that I found out about the "special key" (or whatever it is) option. May have to try that one day.

Teasing us all with a Souls reference on his first day back, cheeky Jawa

Also welcome back!

Jenuall wrote:...Also welcome back!

Thank you, Jen! I suspect it could be some time before I do another Souls run but I would try a different build!

Not interested. I’d rather a professional designer created my character. And cosmetic stuff leaves me cold. It’s like dressing up dolls.

GRChats - Character Creation, does it sway your gaming purchases?

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